Saturday, 18 January 2014

The Pancharatra Agama

It was Vaikunta Ekadeshi and it was just a few days back and hundreds
of devotees had come to the SrinivasaTemple in LIC Colony, Jayanagar 3rd Block,
Bangalore on
the occasion.

The temple officials and a
large number of volunteers were seen
distributing Puliyogre and Laadu and scores of people were seen eating them on
the temple premises itself right from early morning. A few devotees took away
the Prasada home, saying that since it was Ekadeshi, they would consume it the
next day.

Some others sought to know
whether it would be appropriate to consume Theertha Prasada and Prasada in
temples not run, operated and/or presided over by their community.

For them, I had one answer.
The Pancharatra Agama, which is among the sacred texts for Vaishnavas and which
have been extensively quoted in several works by Madhwacharya, has an answer to
such queries.

I will quote a verse from the
text which deals directly with the issue. The Smruthimanikya Sangraha, which is
part of the Pancharatra Agama, in verse 1471 says:

This shloka makes it amply
clear that the Prasada has to be or can be taken at pilgrim places,
irrespective of who prepared it. More specifically, it mentions the
Venkatachalapathy temple (first word of the last line) and also says in the
line before that Theertha and Nirmalya can be taken at the temple.

Now the question is what is
Pancharatras and how did Madhwacharya see it. The Pancharatra are Vaishnava
Sanskrit texts, literally meaning five nights.

The term has also been
attributed to the Shatapatha Brahamana (This
is a prose texts describing the Vedic ritual, associated with the Shukla
Yajurveda) wherein Narayana performed a sacrifice for five nights and
became a transcendent and immanent.

Vaishnavas and Srivaishnavas adhere
to the Pancharatra system of worship.

Madhwacharya has invested the
Pancharatras with the status of Sadagamas and he has referred to them in many
of his works. In Mundaka Upanishad, he says, “In Dwapara Yuga, Vishnu is worshipped
as per the cannons of the Pancharatraw. In Kali Yuga, he is worshipped by the
chanting of his name”.

The Pancharatra Agamas are considered
to be a continuation of the Vedic tradition and Madhwacharya considered them to
be holy and valid as they emanated from Narayana himself.

What makes the Pancharatra
Agamas so important is that the form and style of worship that we follow today
is based on them. Moreover, different forms of Vasudeva or Vishnu are
introduced here.

Infact, the Pancharatra
derives its name from the discourse that Vasudeva gives to five seers over a
period of five nights-Shandilya

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